From the American Legion Hall in Reseda, CA (2/12) courtesy of So Cal Uncensored
– Chuck Taylor over Dalton Castle via rollup
– Chris Hero over Trent? after a tombstone
– Jack Evans over Sami Callihan via schoolboy rollup
– Adam Cole over Andrew Everett
– Zack Sabre Jr. over Trevor Lee via submission
– “Speedball” Mike Bailey over Player “Evil” Uno with a kick to the head
– PWG Champion Roderick Strong over Drew Galloway to retain
Notes:
– After the main event Strong and Cole beat down Galloway, but Sabre came out for the save. Strong and Sabre will meet on All Star Weekend night 1 on March 4th.
Heath Slater w/ Curtis Axel and Adam Rose def. Zack Ryder via pinfall
I had feared that this week’s Main Event would be a write-off, given the light crew that the WWE took to the Smackdown tapings. This opening contest did absolutely nothing to dispel that fear, notwithstanding a fine effort from Ryder.
Jerry Lawler shocks me with his powers of recall by reminding us that Zack once “made a reputation out of social media”, referring to his spell as the self-proclaimed “Internet champion”. Rich Brennan, on the other hand, is the “Waffle House champion” apparently.
Ryder benefits from the goodwill of a fresh crowd at the beginning of the match, managing to get himself a pretty loud “Woo! Woo! Woo!” chant going. Then, the stalling begins, as these guys figure out a way to fill the 15 minutes they’ve been allotted; Slater twice rolling out of the ring to go on celebratory Bo Train (sans Bo) victory laps in the opening minutes.
Typical idiotic babyface booking in this one, as Ryder unnecessarily concerns himself with the dual “distraction” of “Axel Rose” on the outside, to his own detriment. He takes a big bump off the ropes to the floor before the mid-match commercial break, when Rose’s mere presence gives him the yips and allows Slater to push him off.
Slater’s heat shows why anyone wondering why this guy hasn’t been elevated above the role of comedy jobber needs their head examined. He has always been awful on offence and has unquestionably regressed in that regard in the last couple of years. Two godawfully long headlock segments here prove my point.
More hard work from Ryder during his comeback sees him hit a slingshot splash from the apron. A Rich Brennan flub follows, as the announcer erroneously reckons that Axel was responsible for pulling Slater out of the way of the Broski Boot. He wasn’t.
Tope con hilo from Ryder takes out the other two geeks on the outside. But, upon re-entry, he gets a kick in the gut and an Impaler DDT to punish his stupidity. I’d love to know when Slater last won a televised match with that move. Answers on a postcard, please.
– Recap of the Reigns/Ambrose/Lesnar interactions from RAW. I couldn’t possibly care less about any of this, as the storyline rationale for the match makes absolutely no sense. That backstage face-to-face between HHH and Lesnar from RAW two weeks ago tells you all you need to know about why that is the case. I can 100% guarantee that no other heel in the company would have been written to no-sell the threat of Brock (the man who broke his arm in kayfabe) in that manner. All we need now is for the egomaniac to don the bicycle shorts and pin Reigns at ‘Mania. Because, you know, the money is in the chase with Roman. Like it was with Goldberg.
Natalya def. Alicia Fox via submission
Alicia Fox worked heel here, continuing the Big Show-esque face/heel oscillations of Team Bella. She also appears to have reverted to her “crazy” gimmick, which was hinted at on RAW when she screamed the house down after her loss to Charlotte.
This contest ran a little bit longer than the second match usually does, at five minutes. It was notable only for the return of the catchphrase that defined an era, as Lawler responds to Brennan’s reference to Nattie’s cat-fancying with the revelation that Foxy, like him “prefers puppies!”. “Oh no…” says a despairing Brennan.
The finish saw Nattie roll-through off a sunset flip attempt to secure the Sharpshooter for the submission victory. Fox refused to accept a handshake in the aftermath, opting to storm off instead. Nattie did the universally-accepted gesture for “she’s crazy”, to which Fox shouted back “You’re crazy!”. Good comeback.
– Video aired of Bryan’s incredible retirement speech from Monday night, spliced with sections of the wonderful retrospective video that preceded it. I highly doubt that the man will read this, but I’d nonetheless like to express my “gratitude” to the wrestler who made me fall in love with the product all over again four years ago. I returned in early 2012 for The Rock, but stayed for Bryan’s heel character, watching as the “Yes!” chant built momentum leading into the unfortunate (but ultimately career-making) events of Wrestlemania 28. He has rightly removed himself from the fray all too soon, to safeguard his health. But we will always have that wonderful moment when he reached the top of tree two years ago. The very best to him in whatever endeavours he chooses to pursue going forward.
Mark Henry and Darren Young def. Fandango and Damien Sandow via pinfall
An unusually brief featured contest, clocking in at only five minutes and most notable for the return to WWE television of one Damien Sandow – complete with robe and “Hallelujah!” theme.
Despite an apparent return to the Intellectual Saviour gimmick (complete with shouting “You’re Welcome!” after an early headlock takeover), Sandow is clearly positioned as a babyface. Which is weird. The goal here appears to be the rekindling of the dynamic Sandow had with The Miz, as he trades “boo/yay” poses with Fandango before the match begins.
This tension continues throughout the match, with Fandango blind-tagging himself in, before teasing the fans with faked attempts to bring his partner back into the action. This has the desired effect, prompting the now long-forgotten “We Want Sandow!” chants to ring out around the arena.
Sandow eventually loses his patience and tags himself in, hitting a side russian leg sweep on Young. But, before he can follow up with the ol’ Elbow of Disdain, Fandango again enacts an unwanted tag to cut him off.
The two then bicker near the ropes, which allows Young to push Fandango into Sandow and crawl to hot-tag Mark Henry. The finish arrives quickly from there, with Henry catching Fandango off a second-rope cross body attempt. World’s Strongest Slam gets the pin.
Final Thoughts
The company may have worked wonders with a depleted roster on Smackdown, but the knock-on effect on its sister show was not pretty. Nobody needs to see a 15 minute match between Heath Slater and Zack Ryder, regardless of how hard the latter tried to make it watchable. However, it was interesting to see Sandow make a rare televised appearance. Revisiting the heel/face tag-team dynamic that he had with The Miz may have potential, but I’m not sure Fandango is the correct foil. Meanwhile, Lawler’s heel metamorphosis continues, as he resurrects his Divas obsession and that long-lost buzzword, “puppies!”.
This morning marks the second card for New Beginnings, the annual February NJPW PPV. Three big title matches headline this second outing. Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson challenge the new champions Great Bash Heel (Tomoaki Honma and Togi Makabe) for the IWGP Tag Team titles. Kushida defends his IWGP Jr. Heavyweight championship against Los Ingobernables member Bushi.
In the main event, the vacant IWGP Intercontinental championship will be up for grabs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, a former champion and longtime ace of the promotion, looks to capture another title by defeating Kenny Omega, who has recently moved up to heavyweight as well as obtaining a high ranking within Bullet Club by putting AJ Styles out of commission.
We’re looking for your thoughts on tonight’s show as well as on Thursday’s show fro Osaka, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match for each show at dave@wrestlingobserver.com
Live coverage provided by Dave Meltzer at 11pm PST.
TIGER MASK & JUSHIN LIGER & CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN VS. YOUNG BUCKS & CODY HALL
Short match with not much to it. They kept things moving, did a few near falls and the match ended when Hall had Captain in a tombstone position and both Bucks came off the top rope to spike him and Matt scored the pin.
BOBBY FISH & KYLE O’REILLY VS. KAZUSHI SAKURABA & GEDO
Another short match. The early matwork sequence with Sakuraba and O’Reilly was really good. The rest of the match was okay. Fish pinned Gedo after Chasing the Dragon.
MATT SYDAL & RICOCHET & SATOSHI KOJIMA & HIROYOSHI TENZAN VS. YUJI NAGATA & MANABU NAKANISHI & RYUSUKE TAGUCHI & DAVID FINLAY
Good match after Nakanishi and Tenzan started. Crowd was into Kojima vs. Nagata the most. Sydal & Ricochet didn’t do what you’d expect on a big show but this wasn’t the match or spot ont he show to be tearing it up. They looked good with what they did. The finish saw Ricochet pin Finlay after a shooting star press.
TETSUYA NAITO & EVIL VS. MICHAEL ELGIN & JAY WHITE
Naito fist bumped Milan Collection A.T. at the announcers table and went to do the same with Nogami. But Nogami was loyal to Blue Justice. Milano then hopped hte rail and opened the ropes for Naito. They first bumped again so the two announcers were on opposite sides of the fence here. Another short match. Good match ending when Evil pinned White afer an STO. White & Elgin looked good. Naito gave the ref a sliding dropkick. after the match. Naito wanted a fist bump from Milano after but he declined because Naito attacked the ref. Nogami kept yelling “Justice” at him so at some point Nagata may be going against Naito.
BAD LUCK FALE & TAMA TONGA & YUJIRO TAKAHASHI VS. MARK & JAY BRISCOE & TORU YANO FOR NEVER OPEN WEIGHT TRIOS TITLES
The Briscoes & Yano regained the titles. The match was better than Thursday since Tonga seemed to carry the heel side. The Brisoces also looked good and Yano’s heel act is over. During the match Yujiro tried to low blow Yano but the ref caught him The finish was the ref distracted and as the Briscoes pulled Tonga and Fale out of the ring. Yano gave Yujiro a low blow and inned him with his outside cradle. Not bad but no great matches on the first half of the show.
HIROOKI GOTO & KATSUYORI SHIBATA & JUICE ROBINSON VS. KAZUCHIKA OKADA & TOMOHIRO ISHII & YOSHI-HASHI
Real good, best match so far. Okada was really good here, definitely came across like the superstar in the match. Robinson got to do more than usual. The finish saw Okada used the neckbreaker over the knee and Randy Savage elbow on Robinson. He set up the rainmaker but Goto broke it up. Okada hit the dropkick on Goto and then the rainmaker on Robinson for the pin. Highlight was Shibata vs. Ishii. After the match Okada offered to shake hands with Goto and invited him to join CHAOS. Goto walked off. Okada grabbed the mic and said something to Gogo, who walked off.
KUSHIDA VS. BUSHI FOR IWGP JR. TITLE
This was a great match. All kinds of great stuff. They did dives and lots of near falls. Kushida survived the mist in the face, a backslide and bridge and Bushi’s MX finisher which is coming off the top rope into a codebreaker while landing. He tried a second one but Kushida caught Bushi with the codebeaker. Evil interfered a few times. Evil grabbed Kushida but Taguchi hip attacked Evil for the save. Naito tried to interfere but White grabbed Naito by the legs. The finish saw Kushida grab the hoverboard lock and then while holding it kicked Naito off the apron and got the submission. The negative is it was really stupid for Kushida to be working the several minutes with green mist all over his face and the ref not caring.
TOMOAKI HONMA & TOGI MAKABE VS. KARL ANDERSON & DOC GALLOWS FOR THE IWGP TAG TEAM TITLES
Another great match. And it would have been hard to follow the jr. match. It was mostly Honma selling but he survied his arm being worked on, kicked out of the gun stun, survived a Gallows power bomb and a bloody sunday DDT by Anderson. The finish saw Makabe revive and slap Honma over and over to revive him. Makabe put Anderson on his shoulders and Honma used the kokeshi double impact. Makabe clotheslined Gallows over the top, and then Makabe used the King Kong kneedrop on Anderson and Honma used a diving head-butt to pin Anderson.
Tama Tonga came out and said that there is a new member of the Bullet Club and he and that person challenge Makabe & Honma to a title match. Honma accepted the challenge.
HIROSHI TANAHASHI VS. KENNY OMEGA FOR THE VACANT IC TITLE
Omega won the title in 30 minutes with the One Winged Angel in what will be among the best matches of 2016 even though it was filled with inteference. Early in the match Yujiro Takahashi and Cody Hall interfered. Omega told them that the smart marks will take stars off this match if there is too much outside interference (which basically meant the match was going to have a ton of inteference later since he’s a heel) and he needed to win clean. Most of the match was Omega working over Tanahashi’s bad shoulder and Tanahashi working over Omega’s knee. Omega did a totally believable sell job on his knee. Tanahashi used two dragon screws and the Texas cloverleaf. He had the match won when Hall came back out and distracted the ref. The Young Bucks came from under the ring and gave Tanahashi a double superkick and the Indy taker. Omega used the Styles Clash but Tanahashi kicked out. The Bucks sprayed the numbing spray on Omega’s knee. Omega went for the bom a ye but Tanahashi used a dragon suplex. Omega used a ton of forearms and worked over the shoulder but Tanahashi came back. Omega used a reverse Frankensteiner dropping Tanahashi on his head. Omega went for the One Winged Angel but Tanahashi revesed it into a reverse huracanrana. Tanahashi used a straight jacket German suplex and went to the top rope. Nick Jackson shoved him off and put a garbage can around the shoulder. They threw the garbage can but it knocked out ref Red Shoes. The Bucks put the boots to Tanahashi and put his bad shoulder on the garbage can. Omega went to the top rope but Michael Elgin ran in and picked up both Bucks and used a fallaway slam on both. Tanahashi slammed Omega off the top rope onto the garbage can. Elgin carried both Bucks to the back. Tanahashi used a neckbreaker and a sling blade, and a cross body off the top, but missed the high fly flow. Omega used a bom a ye to the back of Tanahashi’s neck, and jumping knee to the chin but Tanahashi kicked oiut. Omega used another bom a ye and the One Winged Angel for the pin.
Omega said some of you may be surprised, some of you may be sad. It’s Valentine’s Day and some of you wish Tanahashi could be your Valentine. You have a new Valentine, you have a new God. I can wrestle. I can talk. I can sing. All you ladies, me and the Young Bucks are the Elite. The Bucks were wearing “Elite” shirts insead of Bullet Club shirts. Then he sang Teenage Dream. This was the the new Sueprstar performance needed. Every booker needs to watch this match as far as a lesson on how to make a new star, well, if you’ve got someone with incredible talent and a Hiroshi Tanahashi on your roster to make him. Omega played air guitar when it was over, jumped in the air, and collapsed, selling his knee. Then he left the ring. Everyone knew what they needed to do here and they did it the best way possible.
From the Armory with estimated 150 in attendance. Good crowd tonight.
Hugo Knox beat Sawyer Fulton
A lot of kids were cheering for Hugo tonight with his dancing and party boy style. Sawyer was out with longer hair and a skunk trail. March was mostly Fulton wearing Hugo down until some flashy moves by Knox, a big dropkick and winning with a sunset flip.
Carmella beat Peyton Royce
The usual antics of these two with some comedy where Carmella took Peyton’s flower and moonwalked away from her. Carmella won with her STO and leg headlock for the submission.
Elias Samson beat Tucker Knight
Samson was out to sing a song about how he started in Palatka and how he wants to leave this crappy town. Knight entered to his live event fans singing songs for him about his silver boots. Samson was annoyed with people other than him singing so he was heckled with Drift Away chants. Finish saw Elias use the ropes to cheat and steal the pin.
Apollo Crews beat Alex Riley
This was a very good match where crowd was split. Dueling chants and pockets of fans cheering for both. Riley was on top of his game tonight, responding to hecklers with “I main evented WrestleMania 27!”. Was all Riley early, even connected on a superkick for a strong near fall late. Apollo fought back, fired up and hit his big slam for the win. Post match Riley asked for a handshake, Apollo accepted and Riley also raised Crews’ arm.
Enzo Amore & Big Cass beat The Vaudevillains
Vaudevillains enter first with their new/old heel music, Enzo and Cass received the largest reaction thus far and do their usual mic work. The heels worked over Cass a lot in this one so we got a chance to see an Enzo Amore firey comeback. He ran wild with a lot of running and knock down moves, was able to get Cass back in to finish the Vauds off before Enzo got the assisted splash for the win.
Levis Valenzuela beat Angelo Dawkins
Dawkins controlled most of the match and talked a lot of smack to no one in particular. Crowd was not familiar with Valenzuela so they weren’t sure how to react. Levis waged his come back and hit the wind up punch for the win.
– In ring promo with Manny Andrade who, in Spanish, says he wants to be the NXT champion someday.
NXT Women’s Champion Bayley beat Liv Morgan to retain
A clean wrestling match between the two friends. The kids in the crowd were starting their own Bayley chants and overall, the crowd was very into Bayley’s offense. Liv had some athletic moves of her own including the Matrix and some roll through pin attempts. Finish saw a Belly To Bayley for the pin followed by Bayley embracing Liv in a show of sportswomanship.
NXT Tag Team Champions Dash & Dawson beat The Hype Bros to retain
The people were, in fact, hype for this match. Dash & Dawson were taunting fans at ringside with Mojo then putting the fans over. Classic heel work by the champions cutting off the ring and keeping Mojo and later Zack isolated. A big comeback by the hypes including a Broski Boot and an attempted Hype Ryder before the champions stole the pin with a roll up on Mojo while Zack was tied up in the ropes.
Today is quite honestly a welcomed quiet weekend in the world of Pro Wrestling and MMA after a very long week. To quickly recap the week: It all started with the retirement of Bryan Danielson from WWE that culminated with his WWE RAW Retirement speech. In the aftermath of the Danielson speech Titus O’Neil was suspended for 90 days and then quickly reduced to 60 days for grabbing Vince McMahon during the closing of RAW’s broadcast on the WWE Network. CM Punk’s UFC debut was delayed due to needing back surgery which was by all reports successful.
Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask & Captain New Japan vs. Young Bucks & Cody Hall
Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Gedo & Kazushi Sakuraba
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & Ricochet & Matt Sydal vs. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi & Ryusuke Taguchi & David Finlay
Michael Elgin & Jay White vs. Tetsuya Naito & Evil
Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Mark & Jay Briscoe & Toru Yano for Never Open weight title
Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata & Juice Robinson vs. Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hash
Kushida vs. Bushi for IWGP jr. title
Tomoaki Honma & Togi Makabe vs. Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows for IWGP tag titles
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kenny Omega for IWGP IC title
Sunday has WWE in Bakersfield,, CA (Chris Jericho, Bray Wyatt, Wyatt Family, Dudleys, Ryback, A.J. Styles, Kane, Natalya).
Raw will be Monday in Anaheim. No Brock Lesnar or Paul Heyman on to the go-home show for Fast Lane. Ticket sales picked up with the announcement of A.J. Styles, although I’m sure in management that will be passed off as pure coincidence, and maybe it is. But this looks to be the first sellout of a Raw show this year. It’s very close at this point and Anaheim is good walk-up market.
Lesnar will make his first appearance on Smackdown since 2004 at the Tuesday tapings in Ontario, CA.
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The newest issue of the Wrestling Observer is one of the best of the year. A very detailed look at the end of Bryan Danielson’s career and retirement. Looking back at sports, pro wrestling and the ramifications that are and are not being talked about. Danielson’s retirement is a big story, both his short and long term impact on pro wrestling. How his story will act as a catalyst for change not only within pro wrestling but all contact sports. If you are a wrestling fan, a sports fan or a science fan, this may be the most important issue of the year.
Bryan Danielson’s retirement speech, career highlights, home town, character both in and out of the ring, booking, the crazy way he ended up as champion for the first time, the birth of the “Yes” chant, the build to WrestleMania 30 & 31, the various exams, why he wanted to continue wrestling and WWE didn’t, his goals outside of WWE and why he changed his mind in the last few weeks.
The quandary he was in about continuing his career, how his career began, the formation of ROH and the changing landscape of independent wrestling, the changing ideas of what a pro wrestling headliner can look like, the first time I ever saw him wrestle while sitting with Red Bastien and Nick Bockwinkel
The suspension of Titus O’Neil, a longtime WWE star talking about going into another sport, another star looking at retiring soon, lots of WrestleMania plans including an early summer major match, Steve Austin’s WrestleMania status, update on promotion of Stephanie McMahon, star who may be interested in returning, Fast Lane, A.J. Styles talks his beginnings in WWE and how hard he tried to hide the Royal Rumble story, how DDP figured in Styles’ return, Linda McMahon forms a new company, Roman Reigns in Raw main events, WWE cuts five in developmental, new WWE books. New announcer hired, Update on many Tough Enough competitors from the past season, plans for a WWE show taped this summer, international star WWE has interest in, as well as a look at all the weekend house shows from WWE & NXT with business notes.
PLUS MUCH MORE! CLICK HERE FOR A FULL WRESTLING OBSERVER PREVIEW
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The Fight Network’s John Pollock has some details on that just-announced show featuring Chael Sonnen vs. Michael Bisping in a grappling match, Kurt Angle vs. Rey Mysterio, and Roy Jones Jr. offering to box a fan for $100k.
ECWA returns on Saturday, 2/20 for a “Winter Challenge” show at the United Asbury Methodist Church in New Castle, DE.
Chyna is appearing tonight for Maryland Championship Wrestling’s Xtreme Anniversary show in Joppatowne, MD. Matt Hardy is in the main event with Jeff Hardy also making a non-wrestling appearance.
Due to a late change due to “medication issues” involving the Siyar Bahadurzada-Brandon Thatch fight on next weekend’s Fight Night 83, the Joe Riggs-Chris Camozzi fight has been moved to the prelims after originally being scheduled for the Fight Pass prelims. The Thatch fight will now take place 2 weeks later at UFC 196
Kansas City, Kansas: – MWA World Heavyweight Champion Orville Brown beat Everette Marshall in 2 out of 3 falls – Wee Willie Davis beat Jack Kennedy – Ray Schwarz beat Karl Davis (DQ) – Vic Christy and Dan O’Connor drew
1951
Minneapolis, Minnesota: – George Bollas beat Bronko Nagurski – Ivan Kameroff beat Tommy O’Toole – Red Bastien defeated Lou Britton
1958
Toronto, Ontario, Canada: – Whipper Billy Watson and Yukon Eric beat Gene Kiniski and Fritz Von Erich – The Miller Brothers, Al and Tiny beat Joe Blanchard and Frank ” Framer Boy” Townsend – Roy McClarity and Dan Miller drew – Fred Atkins and Maurice LaPointe drew
1965
Minneapolis, Minnesota: – Death Match: Dick the Bruiser & The Crusher beat Larry Hennig & Mad Dog Vachon (sub Harley Race) – Junior Heavyweight Champion Danny Hodge beat Eddie Sharkey – Reggie Parks drew Wilbur Snyder – Billy Red Cloud beat Bob Boyer
1974
Honolulu, Hawaii: – Billy Robinson beat AWA Champion Verne Gagne to win title (Title Change only recognized in Hawaii) – Hawaiian Champion Billy Graham drew Ed Francis – Chris Taylor beat Igor Volkov (sub Butcher Vachon) – Neff Maiava & Sam Steamboat beat Dale Brown & Peace Brother II 2 falls to 0 – Ripper Collins beat Guy LaRose – Bill Francis beat The Phantom
1975
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada: – Superstar Billy Graham & Dusty Rhodes beat Baron Von Raschke & Horst Hoffman – Ivan Putski beat Nick Bockwinkel dq – Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell beat Larry Heiniemi & Buddy Wolff – Larry Hennig drew Boris Breznikoff – Geoff Portz beat Khosrow Vaziri
1989
Clash of Champions: Cleveland, Ohio: – United States Tag Team Champions Mike Rotunda & Steve Williams defeated The Fantastics – NWA World Six Man Tag Team Champions The Road Warriors & Genichiro Tenryu vs. Mike Rotunda, Kevin Sullivan & Steve Williams ended in a double disqualification
1994
Knoxville, Tennessee: – “Dirty White Boy” Tony Anthony defeated Brian Lee for the Smoky Mountain Heavyweight Title
1997
Lowell, Massachusetts: – Shawn Michaels vacated the WWF World Title due to a knee injury – Rocky Maivia defeated Hunter Hearst Helmsley for the WWF Intercontinental Title
1998
Lexington, Kentucky: – Axl Rotten defeated Bull Pain to win the IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Title
2000
Germany: – Big Vito & Johnny the Bull defeated Don & Ron Harris for the WCW World Tag Team Titles
2001
Louisville, Kentucky: – Shelton Benjamin & Brock Lesnar defeated BJ Payne & Damien for the Ohio Valley Southern Heavyweight Tag Team Titles
2002
Cincinnati, Ohio: – Chad Collyer defeated Shannon Moore for the HWA Cruiserweight Title – Lance Cade & Mike Sanders defeated The Island Boys for the HWA Tag Team Titles
2010
New York City: – Tyler Black defeated Austin Aries to win the ROH championship – ROH Tag Team champions The Briscoes defeated The Dark City Fight Club
2011
Against All Odds: Orlando, Florida: – Jeff Hardy defeated Mr. Anderson in a ladder match to win the TNA World Title – Jeff Jarrett defeated Kurt Angle
This is an interesting episode as the entire hour is dedicated to the IWGP Heavyweight championship match from Invasion Attack 2015, with Kota Ibushi challenging AJ Styles for the title.
This’ll wrap up our look at the Invasion Attack 2015 show, which took place on April 5, 2015 in Tokyo, Japan at Sumo Hall.
First up is the retrospective interview with Kota Ibushi. He put over the IWGP title and mentioned it’s the biggest title in Japan. He’s proud of himself because his skills are good enough to be in New Japan. When it comes to AJ, he considered him one of the best in the world. He also put over Styles in that Styles had the strongest skills.
I was surprised they took the whole hour to air this, but they took smart commercial breaks and the match did. They took it slow for the first half of the match, very much doing a feeling out process. They did occasional big moves but built up to a great series of moves, including a tease from Kota Ibushi with the attempt of the dragon suplex from the top rope. Ibushi was going for a hurricanrana from the top rope at one point, Styles teased the Clash from the top rope but Ibushi countered. That was a really cool tease.
Another tease I liked was when Omega came out to distract Kota Ibushi. He and Ibushi were synonymous with each other in DDT, teaming together on many occasions. I liked the subtleties of what Omega did as he seemed conflicted, and not outright heelish in his interference. Ibushi tried for a Phoenix Splash, but AJ countered into the Styles Clash and got the win there. Really fantastic match that lived up to everyone’s expectations.
IWGP Champion AJ Styles vs. Kota Ibushi
Crowd was really into this. AJ Styles was truly someone special when in New Japan as he had a presence not too many on the roster have. Ibushi has that presence too, and people buy him as someone who can headline. He’s been out for the last few months with herniated discs, which is hardly surprising considering the type of matches that he has where he completely destroys his body with crazy moves, but that’s the price you pay for doing this kind of style once or even twice a month. When Ibushi returns, and if he can go at this level still when he does, it should be a no-brainer that he, along with Omega, should be the two to fill the void that’s being left by AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura’s departures.
Styles was celebrating his win when Okada came in and cleared everyone out of the ring on his own, laying out Styles with the rainmaker. Gedo takes the mic and says he’ll wrap up the show for him, saying Okada will make it rain in the world of professional wrestling.
Okada mentions that he’s come back for the belt, since he slammed Fale in the ring – he’s really rocking it right now. He’s back, watch him go on a rampage. Gedo says he’ll take it back by force.
Ibushi in his post match interview says he considered it like his last big match, but still couldn’t win. He was very despondent. He says if he could challenge for the belt again, he’d really like to get revenge. You could really feel for him. It’s so weird in WWE they try and dismiss wins and losses because they think everyone knows its fake so it doesn’t matter. But people like seeing wins and losses because even if everyone knows it’s predetermined, they want their favorites to succeed and win, and are with them even at their lowest point, much like Ibushi was here. If you render every win and loss meaningless, why are you even out there supporting guys they want you to like?
Ibushi mentions that he felt like he lost the match in many ways – he was never able to get advantage like he wanted. When Omega interfered, he felt like time stopped. He didn’t feel it had any impact in the match. He still doesn’t know why he joined Bullet Club, but he hopes he can team with him again someday.
Really fine episode of this program. Featured an excellent match, good interviews and some interesting perspectives on things you wouldn’t otherwise get on a regular New Japan feed.
From the University Area CDC Gymnasium in Tampa, FL
The Hype Bros beat Gzim Selmani and Sunny Dhinsa with the Hype Ryder
A lot of silly dancing by Mojo and the crowd was in fact hype.
Tino Sabatelli beat Alexander Wolfe
This was was a much longer match than the two of them are used to.
Peyton Royce beat Aliyah
Royce won via submission with her new hold. She has been working singles matches lately and has done a good job.
Alex Riley beat Patrick Clark
This was a good match where Patrick even countered Riley’s finish in to what looked like an RKO. The place bit on the near fall and was really pulling for Patrick before Riley got the win.
Enzo, Cass, and Carmella beat Blake, Murphy, and Alexa Bliss
It was billed as an intergender match, but that’s just NXT speak for a mixed tag match. Crowd was in to this, getting fired up for every tag and when Enzo hit the big splash for the win.
Sami Zayn beat Manny Andrade
Zayn won with the Helluva Kick in an excellent match. One of the best 1-1 live event matches I’ve ever seen. They did mat work early, both teased dives to each other to the outside, Sami with his flip back in to the ring, Manny with his Tranquilo Lounge on the middle rope. A huge Blue Thunder Bomb for a near fall followed by some strong chops took us to the finish where Sami hit the Exploder in to the corner and ran in for the kick to win it. Post match Sami raised Manny’s hand and the two embraced.
– Dallas Harper did a promo about being 6’9″ and “Ohhhh so fine”. He was heckled by the crowd with a “Where’s Your Shirt” chant.
Nia Jax beat Adrien Reese
This was a short, painful match. Nia destroyed her.
America Alpha (Jason Jordan and Chad Gable) beat NXT Tag Champions Dash and Dawson in a non title match
This was a very good match that got a lot of time. The action was well paced and the heels kept just enough heat on the faces to keep everyone rooting for them to wage their comeback. Gable scored the pin on Dash with the assisted suplex for the win.
We’re looking for your thoughts on Thursday’s New Beginnings in Osaka so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to Dave Meltzer
We’re looking for reports on today’s WWE show in Mannheim, Germany (Roman Reigns vs. Alberto Del Rio) and NXT in Tampa to Dave Meltzer
NEW JAPAN WORLD PRO WRESTLING RETURNS AT 9 P.M. EASTERN TONIGHT ON AXS
A.J. Styles vs. Kota Ibushi for IWGP title – This match was fantastic. I can just imagine how good it’ll be with Mauro Ranallo & Josh Barnett calling it.
Triton & Fuego & The Panther vs. Virus & Tiger & Puma
La Mascara & Dragon Lee & Guerrero Maya vs. Hechicero & Kamaitachi & Bobby Z
Valiente vs Euforia
Rush & Thunder & Marco Corleone vs. Cibernetico & Mr. Niebla & Ultimo Guerrero]
Mistico & Volador Jr. & Mascara Dorada vs. Negro Casas & Mephisto & Cavernario Barbaro
The WWE Germany tour finishes tomorrow in Magdeburg, Germany (Roman Reigns vs. Alberto Del Rio), and we’re looking for reports on that show as well as a house show in Fresno (Chris Jericho, Bray Wyatt, Wyatt Family, Dudleys, Ryback, A.J. Styles, Kane, Natalya) and NXT in Palatka, FL.
NEW JAPAN NEW BEGINNINGS IN NIIGATA LATE SATURDAY NIGHT STARTING AT 2 A.M. EASTERN AND 11 P.M. PACIFIC ON NEW JAPAN WORLD
Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask & Captain New Japan vs. Young Bucks & Cody Hall
Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Gedo & Kazushi Sakuraba
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & Ricochet & Matt Sydal vs. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi & Ryusuke Taguchi & David Finlay
Michael Elgin & Jay White vs. Tetsuya Naito & Evil
Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Mark & Jay Briscoe & Toru Yano for Never Open weight title
Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata & Juice Robinson vs. Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hash
Kushida vs. Bushi for IWGP jr. title
Tomoaki Honma & Togi Makabe vs. Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows for IWGP tag titles
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kenny Omega for IWGP IC title
Sunday has WWE in Bakersfield,, CA (Chris Jericho, Bray Wyatt, Wyatt Family, Dudleys, Ryback, A.J. Styles, Kane, Natalya).
Raw will be Monday in Anaheim. No Brock Lesnar or Paul Heyman on to the go-home show for Fast Lane. Ticket sales picked up with the announcement of A.J. Styles, although I’m sure in management that will be passed off as pure coincidence, and maybe it is. But this looks to be the first sellout of a Raw show this year. It’s very close at this point and Anaheim is good walk-up market.
Lesnar will make his first appearance on Smackdown since 2004 at the Tuesday tapings in Ontario, CA.
If you’ve ever wanted to WATCH our radio shows here on the site, check out our new Youtube page! No full video shows, but lots of video clips, full free audio shows that you can tell your friends about, and much more to come! Make sure you subscribe today!
The newest issue of the Wrestling Observer is one of the best of the year. A very detailed look at the end of Bryan Danielson’s career and retirement. Looking back at sports, pro wrestling and the ramifications that are and are not being talked about. Danielson’s retirement is a big story, both his short and long term impact on pro wrestling. How his story will act as a catalyst for change not only within pro wrestling but all contact sports. If you are a wrestling fan, a sports fan or a science fan, this may be the most important issue of the year.
Bryan Danielson’s retirement speech, career highlights, home town, character both in and out of the ring, booking, the crazy way he ended up as champion for the first time, the birth of the “Yes” chant, the build to WrestleMania 30 & 31, the various exams, why he wanted to continue wrestling and WWE didn’t, his goals outside of WWE and why he changed his mind in the last few weeks.
The quandary he was in about continuing his career, how his career began, the formation of ROH and the changing landscape of independent wrestling, the changing ideas of what a pro wrestling headliner can look like, the first time I ever saw him wrestle while sitting with Red Bastien and Nick Bockwinkel
The suspension of Titus O’Neil, a longtime WWE star talking about going into another sport, another star looking at retiring soon, lots of WrestleMania plans including an early summer major match, Steve Austin’s WrestleMania status, update on promotion of Stephanie McMahon, star who may be interested in returning, Fast Lane, A.J. Styles talks his beginnings in WWE and how hard he tried to hide the Royal Rumble story, how DDP figured in Styles’ return, Linda McMahon forms a new company, Roman Reigns in Raw main events, WWE cuts five in developmental, new WWE books. New announcer hired, Update on many Tough Enough competitors from the past season, plans for a WWE show taped this summer, international star WWE has interest in, as well as a look at all the weekend house shows from WWE & NXT with business notes.
PLUS MUCH MORE! CLICK HERE FOR A FULL WRESTLING OBSERVER PREVIEW
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MMA and WWE trending over the past week as far as Internet searches on Google go, Kevin Randleman was No. 7 yesterday with 100,000. Titus O’Neil was No. 17 on Tuesday with 50,000. Daniel Bryan was No. 6 on Monday with 200,000.
Lucha Underground set its record audience on Wednesday night, doing 136,000 viewers at 8 p.m. and the immediate 9 p.m. replay did 81,000 viewers.
A wild PPV show was announced on 3/20 from the Celebrity Theater in Phoenix. On the same stage, Roy Jones Jr. will fight a fan and if the fan can beat him, he gets $100,000. Ken Shamrock will face Dan Severn for the first time in 19 years to end their long standing rivalry in an MMA match. Kurt Angle will face Rey Mysterio Jr. in a pro wrestling match, and Chael Sonnen will face Michael Bisping in a grappling match. We’ll have a lot more on this as it approaches, but this is legit.
The World MMA Awards from last Friday will air tonight at 10 p.m. on FS 2.
The special we wrote about yesterday, a look back at the first WrestleMania in 1985, airs tonight at 10:30 p.m. on the MSG Network.
The Edge & Christian Show That Totally Reeks of Awesomeness debuts after Fast Lane on 2/21 on the WWE Network
Other new WWE Network shows include Daniel Bryan’s Greatest Moments, Brock Lesnar’s Road to the Undisputed title and The Best of Stone Cole vs. Mr. McMahon.
John Cena will be the honorary pace car driver for the Daytona Beach 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event on 2/21 at 1 p.m., the same day as Fast Lane.
Stock continued to decline, closing at $14.65 per share, the lowest in a long time. Besides the decline in the market as a whole, this stems from yesterday’s report where the company lost money for the quarter and there was a slight decline in network subscriptions.
We don’t have an update on Riddick Moss, who was motionless after taking a fall during the NXT show in Jacksonville and they had to stop the main event (Dash & Dawson & Moss vs. Sami Zayn & Colin Cassady & Enzo Amore) last night after a triple suplex spot. He was able to get up and did walk from the ring to the back on his own but he was motionless for a long time. (thanks to Ross Blair)
Information on various web site activities for WrestleMania can be found here.
The newspaper in Seattle on the retirement of Daniel Bryan. Article here.
The New York Post has a story on the decline of WWE stock.
Bas Rutten, who ended up being very good friends with Kevin Randleman after their famous UFC title fight, talks about him here.
Bellator announced today that Michael Chandler has signed a multi-year multi-fight contract with the promotion. As noted in the current issue of the Observer, there are talks for his next fight to be 5/14 in San Jose against Josh Thomson.
TMZ reported that Tito Ortiz was cited for misdemeanor battery early this morning after allegedly getting physical with a woman inside of a Las Vegas night club. The alleged incident took place at Drai’s Nightclub at about 1 a.m. when a woman claimed Ortiz got physical with her and tried to rip her phone away. She said she had been taking photos inside the cub earlier and she thinks Ortiz may have thought she was trying to shoot photos of him. She claimed Ortiz tried to whip her around. Police arrived and Ortiz was not arrested, but was cited.
Kevin Kiley Sr., who is the father of Alex Riley, has been in the news this week because he quit his job as a sports talk show host at WKRK-FM in Cleveland. Kiley said that his principles and the principles of the station didn’t match up. He’d been under controversy when he said the Buffalo Bills hiring a woman as an assistant coach was “absurd.” In the past Kiley Sr. had gotten heat by saying women shouldn’t be on the voting board for the Pro Football Hall of Fame or allowed to officiate the game. This had led to reporter Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk saying that people should boycott the station. Kiley said that in 35 years of reporting on sports, this was the first time when the station told him he could not defend himself against critics, so he quit. “You shouldn’t accept censorship ever. You should make sure the people on the radio are telling you the truth as they see it. Don’t let some clown in New York tell them what to say and then you think it’s your opinion or what not to say. That’s what happened here and I’m not accepting it.”
Joe Garagiola, the former NBC personality who often hosted the Tonight Show, was part of the Today Show crew and the major league baseball broadcast team, turns 90 today. his connection with pro wrestling is that he was the first announcer for Wrestling at the Chase in St. Louis, and his brother Mickey was the longtime ring announcer on the show. Garagiola was also social friends with Gene Kiniski.
Tier 1 Wrestling will be doing an iPPV through WWNLive.com featuring Timothy Thatcher vs. Michael Elgin in their first-ever meeting.
41 years ago today before a sellout crowd in Miami Beach, Jack Brisco retained the NWA title over the Mongolian Stomper; Andre the Giant won a Battle Royal which also included Chris Taylor, and Bill Watts beat Bob Roop via DQ in a Florida title match.
Pro Wrestling Phoenix tomorrow night in Council Bluffs, IA at the National Guard Armory headlined by Arik Cannon.
AAW on 2/19 in Merrionette Park, IL at 115 Bourbon Street has Eddie Kingston vs. Sami Callihan for the AAW title, AR Fox vs. Matt Cage for the Heritage title, Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano vs. Chris Hero & Drew Gulak, Abyss & Kongo Kong vs. Ryan Boz & Russ Jones, plus Trevor Lee, Candice LaRae and others. On 3/18 in Berwyn, IL at the Eagles Club has Jack Evans, Chris Hero, Ciampa, Silas Young, Colt Cabana and Drew Gulak. On 4/9 in Chicago at the Logan Square Auditorium has Matt Sydal and Hero
